Fiber glass has fundamentally changed the sport of pole-vaulting, but Finland's hard-working Pentti Nikula and some height-conscious Americans prove it is mostly skill and training that make it possible to Jump up, twist around, set another record

Baseball in the Dominican Republic is an emotional outlet for the villagers, a subject of profound study for the sociologists and—since Dictator Trujillo's assassination—a delicate matter for politicians. It is also an engagingly good-natured game of dash and audacity, and the success of Dominican big leaguers in the U.S. has inspired a host of talented youngsters on the sugar cane plantations.

FACES IN THE CROWD

Lorraine Hanlon, now 17 but a skating champion before entering her teens, matched her usually superb performance at the compulsory figures with some graceful free skating to win the U.S. Senior Ladies' Figure Skating Championship in Long Beach, Calif.

Gary Carle, 34-year-old Scottsdale (Ariz.) Country Club pro, had a hectic 31 for nine holes in the Phoenix Open, shooting a hole in one, an eagle, four birdies, a par, a bogey and a double bogey. He finished the event with a 289, well out of the money.

Tamara Davis, 15, from Frederick, Md., was told by her coach that if she tried she could break the U.S. indoor record of 6.9 for the 50-yard hurdles. Without even running "extra fast," she turned in a 6.8, now hopes to make the Olympic team.

Jack Stanford, an Englewood, Fla. fishing resort owner and charter boat captain, set a new C racing runabout speed record of 63.157 mph in the Sunshine City Outboard Regatta on Lake Maggiore, St. Petersburg, breaking a mark set one week earlier.

Diane Congdon, 16, walked and ran 50 miles in 13 hours and 25 minutes, likely a record for teen-age girls at the sport of New Frontiersmen. Playing hooky from Terra Linda (Calif.) High School, she carried an eight-pound pack and sprinted the last 200 yards.

John Lance, basketball coach at Pittsburg (Kans.) State for 41 years, became only the third coach ever to win 600 games at one college. His team's 63-53 victory over Maryville (Mo.) State was also his 643rd win in a coaching career that began back in 1918.

Before he became the premier postseason performer of his generation, the Patriots icon was a middling college quarterback who invited skepticism, even scorn, from fans and his coaches. That was all—and that was everything